title: Stealing among high school students: prevalence and clinical correlates.
abstract: Although stealing among adolescents appears to be fairly common, an assessment of adolescent stealing and its relationship to other behaviors and health problems is incompletely understood. A large sample of high school students (n = 3,999) was examined by self-report survey with 153 questions concerning demographic characteristics, stealing behaviors, other health behaviors including substance use, and functioning variables, such as grades and violent behavior. The overall prevalence of stealing was 15.2 percent (95% confidence interval (CI), 14.8-17.0). Twenty-nine (0.72%) students endorsed symptoms consistent with a diagnosis of DSM-IV-TR kleptomania. Poor grades, alcohol and drug use, regular smoking, sadness and hopelessness, and other antisocial behaviors were all significantly (p < .05) associated with any stealing behavior. Stealing appears to be fairly common among high school students and is associated with a range of potentially addictive and antisocial behaviors. Significant distress and loss of control over this behavior suggest that stealing often has significant associated morbidity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Minnesota Medical School, 2450 Riverside Avenue, Minneapolis, MN 55454, USA. grant045@umn.edu
authors.forename: Jon E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Grant
authors.forename: Marc N
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Potenza
authors.forename: Suchitra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Krishnan-Sarin
authors.forename: Dana A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Cavallo
authors.forename: Rani A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Desai
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D003237:Connecticut / Q000453:epidemiology; D007174:Disruptive, Impulse Control, and Conduct Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012574:Schools; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013800:Theft / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*